Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., right, pictured in his first meeting with Elijah Muhammad, left, head of the Black Muslims, said February 24, 1966, in Chicago, IL, his visit does not mean they have a common front. King said Elijah Muhammad agreed a movement is needed against slum conditions. (AP Photo)

by Dr. Khalilah T. Muhammad —Guest Columnist—

Shortly after the celebrations of a new year, everywhere around the world, people unify, collaborate and commemorate the birth anniversary and the legacy of America’s Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His legacy includes keywords, phrases and titles like, “Give Us the Ballot” (May 17, 1957);

“Letter from Birmingham Jail” (April 16, 1963); “I Have a Dream” (August 28, 1963); “Where Do We Go from Here?” (August 16, 1967); and “I Have Been to the Mountain Top” (April 3, 1968).

Similarly, in the 58-week lecture series “The Time and What Must Be Done” in Part 23, titled “We Must Unite To Save Our Youth,” delivered June 15, 2013, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan gives us more keywords and phrases.

---
Sister Dr. Khalilah T. Muhammad

In the section of his address, “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: A man of growing consciousness,” Minister Farrakhan expresses that “You know, you may think that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a ‘dreamer.’ I beg to differ with you.

‘The Dream’ that Martin Luther King had in 1963 that he spoke of at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, the man wasn’t ‘dreaming’ when he made a speech—‘The Crisis in America’s Cities: An Analysis of Social Order and a Plan of Action Against Poverty, Discrimination and Racism in Urban America.’”

“This plan was presented by Dr. King to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta on Aug. 15, 1967,”  Minister Farrakhan also said.

Minister Farrakhan continues later in his message, stating, “Brothers and sisters, I want to put before you some more of what Dr. King said because most of America does not know Elijah Muhammad, they don’t know Malcolm X, and they don’t know Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. was marching toward a goal. He was evolving toward a goal and was assassinated before he reached it.”

Minister Farrakhan even posed a question, for which I am sure many of us have wondered: “Where would Dr. King be today, if he were alive, to walk among us?”

Many may still recall the iconic picture of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Dr. King sitting together in a peaceful, pleasant and engaged dialogue.  A dialogue that many wished they could have been present to hear. Minister Farrakhan provides an answer to this lingering question. 

The two men met on Feb. 24, 1966 at the home of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in Chicago. In speaking about their meeting Minster Farrakhan said Dr. King sat with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and “‘like two brothers,’ they got along like two brothers should.

They spoke frankly, honestly to each other; and Dr. King asked the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, ‘Do you really think that all White people are ‘devils’? and Elijah Muhammad looked at Dr. King; he said, ‘Both of us are from the South,’ he said, ‘We know that there are snakes that are poisonous, and there are snakes that are not.

The rattlesnakes is poisonous, but the king snake is not.’ He was telling Dr. King, ‘We are both Georgia boys. We know that you have some White people that hate you with a passion, and you have some White people that will tolerate you, and even help you. But, ‘a snake is a snake.’”

Minister Farrakhan goes on to say, “I don’t know the final outcome of such a great meeting, but I do know this: They met in February just before our national Saviours’ Convention. And just a few months later, Dr. King was dead.”

In the New Amsterdam newspaper, in the article, “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: I fear I am integrating my people into a burning house,” printed on January 10, 2024, the reader is given his friend Harry Belafonte’s weighty words on how Dr. King evolved in his later years. 

“Midway through the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King realized that the struggle for integration would ultimately become a struggle for economic rights. Belafonte reflected:

‘I remember the last time we were together, at my home, shortly before he was murdered. He seemed quite agitated and preoccupied, and I asked him what the problem was?’” the article reads.

In the same New Amsterdam article, it states, “[a]ccording to Belafonte, King responded, ‘I’ve come upon something that disturbs me deeply. We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know we will win, but I have come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house.

I’m afraid that America has lost the moral vision she may have had, and I’m afraid that even as we integrate, we are walking into a place that does not understand that this nation needs to be deeply concerned with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised.

Until we commit ourselves to ensuring that the underclass is given justice and opportunity, we will continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tears the soul of this nation. I fear that I am integrating my people into a burning house.’”

Listen to the news. Watch the weather. Look out of your window. America is burning up in flames literally and figuratively. In looking at the American landscape today, we can see the truthful words of Dr. King and the words of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad coming into fruition.

We are witnessing The Fall of America right before our very eyes. The question that many are asking is the same Harry Belafonte raised to Dr. King, “What should we do?” and Dr. King replied that we should “become the firemen.” Dr. King also said, “Let us not stand by and let the house burn.”

Dr. King arrived at a different stance on how to take action and responsibility, so I am sure that he was also greatly influenced by his meeting with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and possibly became more aware of the truth in the Muslim Program of the Nation of Islam, as given to us by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Especially, Point No. 9 of “What the Muslims Believe,” which states in part:

“We BELIEVE that the offer of integration is hypocritical and is made by those who are trying to deceive the Black peoples into believing that their 400-year-old open enemies of freedom, justice and equality are, all of a sudden, their ‘friends.’

Furthermore, we believe that such deception is intended to prevent Black people from realizing that the time in history has arrived for the separation from the Whites of this nation.

“If the White people are truthful about their professed friendship toward the so-called Negro, they can prove it by dividing up America with their slaves. …”

Like these powerful words in “The Muslim Program,” I am sure Dr. King could have quite possibly agreed. In fact, in the same part 23 of  “The Time and What Must be Done,” regarding the great 1966 meeting between Dr. King and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Minister Farrakhan puts forth quite a thought-provoking question:

“What would America have been like if Dr. King and Elijah Muhammad, if the Civil Rights Movement and the Nationalist Movement saw, ‘the common ground’—and each of us worked together for the Common Cause which is the Total Liberation of Our People?”

Let us go back to study, watch and listen to “The Time and What Must Be Done” Part 23 at media.noi.org and let us study the speeches from the last two years of Dr. King’s life. Let us get further acquainted with him as a man growing in consciousness and being more than a dreamer.

Sister Khalilah T. Muhammad, Ph.D., is an associate professor of English at Olive-Harvey Community College in Chicago. Dr. Khalilah is also an award-winning educator, ghostwriter, researcher, published author, editor for the Table Talks, instructor in the Orientation Class and a student in the Ministry Class at Mosque Maryam.